Meat Consumption and Cognitive Health by APOE Genotype. The case for entrepreneurial thinking vs. tribalism

A recent study points out that consumption of meat is associated with a functional brain, and may be mitigating dementia like Alzheimer's. I'm a research psychologist, specializing in executive functions and nutrition psychology. I was recruited to Finland twice. The second time to investigate the future for their agriculture from a perspective of entrepreneurial thinking. My conclusions are that farmers should focus on producing meat, eggs, and whole dairy. That is consistent with the science and US new dietary guidelines. But a former colleague of mine, a nutritionist, keeps reiterating that animal source food is bad for health. Why? I believe it's about culture. Sweden is famously marked by entrepreneurial thinking, but according to international scholars, Finland is marked by tribalism, including moral shaming.

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A recent study points out that consumption of meat is associated with a functional brain, and may be mitigating dementia like Alzheimer's.

Link to source

Investigative journalist Gary Taubes have gone through the study and made many interesting comments.

I'm a research psychologist, specializing in executive functions (e.g. Ardila, 2008) and nutrition psychology – how we think about food and how food influences how we thing. I was recruited to Finland twice. The second time to investigate the future for their agriculture from a perspective of entrepreneurial thinking, which is about the “knowledge structures” that people use to make judgments and decisions that involve the evaluation, creation and growth of opportunities (Cacciolatti och Lee, 2015; Mitchell et al. 2002; Österberg, 2012).

My conclusions are that farmers should focus on producing meat, eggs, and whole dairy (Österberg, 2019, 2020, 2021 a(In Swedish), 2021 b, in Swedish; 2022 (In Swedish), 2023 (In Swedish), 2024 (In Swedish)).

On 2023, Uns FAO made similar conclusions (Österberg, 2023).

On January 7, 2026, US secretary for health, Robert Kennedy Jr, presented new dietary guidelines which resonates with FAOs my conclusions (See my comment, Österberg, 2026).

The backstory. Millions of years before the present, our ancestors added animal fat and meat to their diet. That started a recuction of their guts, and an expansion of their brain, from the occipetal and forward (Aiello och Dunbar, 1993; Aiello och Wheeler, 1995; McPherron et al. 2010; Hublin et al. 2015; Pobiner, 2013, 2016; Pontzer et al 2016; Thompson et al. 2019; Österberg, 2019).

A bigger brain, especialy the prefrontal cortex, gave room for new mental faculties – the executive functions (Ardila, 2008; Baumrind, 1966; Coolidge and Wynn, 2018; Pringle, 2016).

It's risk-free to eat animal source food, like fat and meat (Astrup, 2020; Han et al. 2019; Howard et al. 2006; Johnston et al. 2019; Ramsden et al. 2016; Zeeratkar et al. 2019).

It's important for children to eat animal source food in order to develop physical and mental health (Adesogan et al. 2019; Balehegn et al. 2019).

It's important for adults to eat animal source food in order to develop physical and mental health (Dobersek et al. 2023; Ede, 2019; Itkonen et al. 2020; Lustig, 2017; Österberg, 2020; Poitelon et al. 2020; Smith, 2019; Tong et al. 2020;Ylilauri et al. 2019).

But a former colleague of mine, Mikael Fogeholm, who is a Finnish nutritionist, reiterates that animal source food, like fat and meat should be bad för health.

Fogelholm is recurrently invited by Finnish media to repeat his claims (Österberg, 2025 a).

It's resonable to assume that the interaction between Fogelholm and Finnish media have had a significant influence on Finnish peoples diets and health.

So, what's outcome?

In 2023 EU/OECD mapped the cause of death among the EU-member states. Because Finland used to be a part of Sweden, the countries shares genetics, history, and language. Differences is therefore expected to be non-existent or very small.

But:, here's what it shows:

• among the people who died in Sweden, 10% died of Alzheimers/dementia.
  
  
• among the people who died in Finland, 20% died of Alzheimers/dementia.

In Finland, they typical claim that this is explained by biology, but that's unlikely. The only resonable explanation is culture – what people eat or do not eat.

From 2020 on onwards , Finnish government arms and organizations have reported what can only be labeled catastrophe's for the country. For example, women's relational aggressiveness is the big issues, the Finnish school system has collapsed, the research at the University of Helsingfors has collapsed, innovative thinking and the economy is at rock bottom. Here's a link to 35 points (Österberg, 2025 b).

But why do the Finns stick with a narrative that seems to be related to their own demise? For one, Sweden is famously marked by entrepreneurial thinking, but according to international scholars, Finland is  marked by tribalism, including moral shaming (Pagel, 2019).

More about my expertise.

Executive coaching for CEOs/managers and workshops to facilitate Organizational Performance, Learning, and Creativity for Problem Solving | Lectures: Nutrition for physical and mental health | Course/lecture: children's emotional and social adjustment and cognitive development | Language training - Swedish | Academy Competency | CV | Teaching skills and experience | Summary of research project | Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube-channel | TikTok | X